The Australian Tax Office's past outsourcing contracts were too rigid to cope with technological change, according to its CIO, Bill Gibson -- so this time, business gets shotgun and IT will take a back seat.
Government continues to shun colossal outsourcing contracts in favour of selective sourcing, while businesses display growing confidence in software-as-a-service -- however sustained skills shortages have plagued deployments, sparking interest in offshore options.
Government was once the great hope for open source but it will continue to diminish due to a lack of support according to the CIOs of Australia's largest government agencies.
Recently appointed Defence CIO Greg Farr will target Defence's "short of perfect" HR system as the first major tech overhaul he will head up.
Acquisitions and mergers by the industry's US powerbrokers continued at pace throughout 2006, but locally, offshoring and fibre-optic broadband networks provided the biggest talking points.
In the second part of his interview, Defence CIO Greg Farr talks about outsourcing, the skills crisis and reveals his most urgent IT priority.
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Bootstrappr
From boom to bust, from unconference to BarCamp and beyond, Renai LeMay tracks the fortunes of Australia's startup community.
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